Lego Indiana Jones

Preview

Indy is back, complete with plastic hat and whip

Saw that one coming

Last July, the good people over at LucasArts dropped a nice little nugget of information for us to chew on in the next few months. After the success of its mediocre but fun Lego: Star Wars games, LucasArts have confirmed that it will be releasing Lego Indiana Jones sometime in the summer of 2008. The timing could not be better for the release of the game as it will surely go hand in hand with the release of both the forthcoming Indiana Jones movie and new realistic Indiana Jones game coming out next year. As far as the Lego Indiana Jones game goes, it has neither been confirmed or denied which consoles it will be coming to, but having said that, expect it to be available across the range of devices including PC, PS3, Wii and X360. The handhelds will no doubt get a look in too.

What’s Old is New Again

Lucas Arts will once again team up with TT Games, the same partnership involved with the Lego Star Wars games. The game shall encompass all three of the current Indiana Jones movies. If this game is anything like the Lego Star Wars game (which it most likely will be), all of the memorable events that happen in Raiders, Temple of Doom and the Holy Grail will find their way into the game with hilarious results. For some reason watching some of your favourite moments in Lego form really brings a smile to your face. Surely, at some point during the game, Lego Indy will have to run away from an oversized ball of Lego, dodge poison arrows, or leap from an airplane on an inflatable raft.

We have not been told as of yet how the game will control, but if you have played the Lego Star Wars games you can bet your last dollar the control scheme will probably be the same. However, one cannot but be intrigued by what the developers could put together for the Wii controls. Using the Wii-mote to control Indy’s whip sounds like fun to me, but again, we will have to wait and see.

According to Jim Ward, President of LucasArts, the game works very well on a family level as it has plenty of fun to provide for both parents and children alike. The adults will find value in the comic spin these games put on the classic movies from the late 1980s and 90s and will chuckle at the light-hearted way in which the game pulls off these movie moments. Children, on the other hand, will get their first taste of the Indiana Jones movie, an excellent first step and great way to get them excited about the new movie coming out next year. Just thinking about the boulder scene will have young children and young at heart adults smiling with excitement.

Overload

With nearly a year left until its release, the developers have plenty of time to put together a game that is fun to play, and at the same time enable the older gamers a chance to reminisce about their favourite parts of the Indy movies. With little known about the make-up of the game at this point much can be guessed about how the game will play and look. If you just cannot take the suspense and you have not played Lego Star Wars, feel free to pick up a copy to get an idea of what you can expect.

If playing the Lego Star Wars game doesn’t satisfy your Lego Indiana Jones appetite, play sets of the game will be available starting in January 2008, but after that, all you can do is wait for the release date. With so many Indiana Jones products sure to be out a year from now, you may end up suffering from Indiana overload. Lets hope that for LucasArts sake and their product line, that the movie and the games succeed. At the same time, the Lego universe is expanding as well; they have recently announced a deal with DC comics to make a Lego Batman game. With all the talk going on in the Lego universe you might just say they have the building blocks for success (I couldn’t resist). Look for more information on this game as it develops.